Adolph Wochner was born in Bloomington in 1870, the son of Francis Wochner, a German immigrant. Adolph was a cashier at the American State Bank at the time of his death in 1938. His wife was Estella Schinberg. In 1938 being a cashier at a bank was a very high rank and a very respected position.
Adolph's only son Leonard, raised at the home at 104 W Wood Street, attended Georgetown University and the law schools of the University of Michigan and Loyola. Leonard became the president of the American State Bank at the age of 32, just six years after the death of his father. Leonard held that position until his death at the age of 71.
The home on Wood Street, which no longer exists, was designed by George H Miller.
Francis Wochner, Adolph's father, was from Baden Germany and came to the United States at the age of 7 in 1839. His family eventually came to Bloomington, where he became a beer brewer and made a fine living in Bloomington. (see Bill Kemp's article about the brewery: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/highland-park-golf-course-site-of-old-german-brewery/article_dbd51cbe-db2e-5440-a207-dea8454c32d5.html) His home was also designed by George H Miller.
Long before this house was built at 108 W Wood Street the Wochner family name was tainted with the scandal of a murder investigation and trial. In April of 1882 Frank Wochner Jr. was out with his friends, all men employed by his father's brewery, drinking and carousing. They stopped outside a home on South Main, just outside the city limits, and were invited in by the equally intoxicated crowd at that home. They declined and meant to move on. But Dan O'Brien, a young man associated with the house, had mischievously struck Frank Lochner's horse where it was waiting outside the house. Frank Wochner, rather melodramatically, declared that "he who strikes my horse strikes me!" and a fight ensued. A shot from a pistol brought all the men from inside the house to the fight.
In the general melee Michael Lynch, a visiting blacksmith from Canada, was hit by a champagne bottle, supposedly by Frank Wochner. His friends laid him out on a table in the Engleken beer garden across the street, carefully fencing him in with boards so he couldn't roll off the table, and left him there. They assumed that he was passed out drunk and would wake up the next morning no worse for the wear. But at six am Michael was found still insensible, a cut on his head, and he was taken to the home of his uncle, where he died later that evening after accusing Frank Wochner of striking the fatal blow.
Further investigation by the police indicated that Frank held the bottle (no fingerprinting was available at this time -- fingerprinting was first developed by an Argentine policeman in 1891 Juan Vucetich. (see https://www.usmarshals.gov/usmsforkids/fingerprint_history.htm) So this conclusion was made based on statement of Lynch, who, being a visitor may have known only the names of a few, well-known people in the town.
Being the son of a well-known, prosperous citizen Frank caught every break available--the investigation was completely secret and the inquest jury issued a statement that no one culprit could be determined, and Frank was exonerated. The Pantagraph was quietly contemptuous of the finding and commented a few times about the unfortunate fact that the inquest was kept secret.
The family of Michael Lynch did not let the matter go. They hired an attorney to investigate the crime, and Frank Wochner, along with two other men present on the evening in question, was brought to trial in October of 1882. That jury acquitted the men in an open trial, and the matter was finally settled.